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Trail of Tears/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby. A boy, Tim, and a robot, Moby, are hiking down a trail in the woods. Tim is holding a piece of paper in his hands. MOBY: Beep. The two stop and Moby points at a sign on the side of the trail. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, Can you tell me about the Trail of Tears? From, Brendon. TIM: Yeah, we’re on part of it now. Tim and Moby stand in front of the sign.The top part has the emblem of the Trail of Tears on it, and the bottom part of the sign shows an arrow pointing to the left. TIM: But the Trail of Tears isn’t a single route or a geographical name. It refers to the forced relocation of American Indian tribes during the 1830s. The United States government kicked more than 60,000 Indians off their ancestral lands and made them march nearly 1,300 miles west. An image shows an Indian caravan traveling down a road. People of all ages are traveling by foot, riding horses, and sitting in covered wagons. MOBY: Beep. Moby makes an angry face and looks over at Tim. TIM: Yeah, it’s definitely not one of America’s proudest moments. At the time, parts of the southeastern United States were still legally controlled by five major tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. A map shows the southeastern portion of the United States. The tribal lands of the Chickasaw and Choctaw are highlighted in parts of present-day Mississippi, as well as the Creek land in Alabama, the Cherokee land in Georgia and Alabama, and the Seminole land in Florida. Images of American Indians from these tribes appear in the foreground. TIM: Together, they were known as the Five Civilized Tribes. Tim makes air quotes as he says “Five Civilized Tribes.” MOBY: Beep. Moby crosses his arms in front of his chest and frowns. TIM: Right, as if other tribes weren’t civilized or something. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, white Americans considered the Five Tribes “civilized” because they were fairly peaceful and adopted some of the customs of their white neighbors. An animation shows an Indian woman riding a horse that is pulling a wagon with hay. She rides past a white man and waves to him. TIM: They dressed in European-style clothes; they built roads, schools, and farms; and many converted to Christianity. An Indian couple is shown. The woman is wearing a European-style dress and a red necklace, and the man is wearing a three-piece suit and a bowtie. The background shows a plowed field, and an animation adds a brick house and a church to it. Tim: The Cherokee even published a newspaper and formed a government with a constitution modeled after the U.S. Constitution. An animation shows a Cherokee newspaper from New Echota, dated Wednesday January 28 of 1829, and a copy of the Cherokee Nation Constitution. TIM: But none of it could stop the waves of white settlers who were hungry for more and more land. In 1803, the United States bought a huge amount of land from France, in the Louisiana Purchase. A map of the present-day United States is shown; however, the map shows how the land was partitioned out in 1803. The land east of the Mississippi River, apart from Florida, is labeled "United States." The middle portion of the country west of the Mississippi River is labeled "French Territory." The label changes to read "Louisiana Purchase." TIM: With all this new territory, some Americans saw an opportunity to take over Indian lands in eastern states like Georgia and Tennessee. The video zooms in on the southeast portion of the map, where the tribal territories of the Five Civilized Tribes are highlighted. TIM: They just needed to convince the tribes living there to move out west. When gold was discovered on Cherokee land in 1828, white settlers demanded that the government do something about the Indians. The camera zooms in on the region of the map where the Cherokee tribe lived, which was mostly in the region of present-day Georgia and Alabama. An animation of gold bars appears with an arrow pointing toward the Cherokee region. TIM: So in 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. Signed by President Andrew Jackson, the act authorized the government to negotiate land treaties with American Indian tribes. An animation shows President Jackson sitting in his office, signing the act. TIM: In theory, tribes would voluntarily give up their lands in exchange for money and new lands west of the Mississippi River. A thought bubble appears over Andrew Jackson. It shows an Indian woman accepting the payment for land she sold to a white man. MOBY: Beep. Moby narrows his eyes and looks at Tim. TIM: Right. In reality, it wasn’t voluntary at all. Tribal leaders were pretty much forced into signing unfair treaties. An animation shows a group of white men and a policeman standing over an American Indian signing a piece of paper. A drop of sweat is visible on his forehead. TIM: The Choctaw were the first to leave in 1831, followed by the Creek in 1834, the Chickasaw in 1837, and the Cherokee in 1838. The map of the present-day United States is shown. An animation adds several arrows leading from the four labeled tribal lands to the Indian Territory, in what is now Oklahoma and Kansas. TIM: As for the Seminoles, a large group of them decided to hold their ground, and they ended up fighting a 10-year war with the U.S. Army. The video shows the region where the Seminole tribe lived, in present-day Florida. An animation shows fighting over that region. TIM: Eventually, though, most were forced out west onto Indian lands in 1842. An animation draws an arrow that stretches from the Seminole tribal region, over the Gulf of Mexico, to the Indian Territory. MOBY: Beep. Moby wipes a tear from his eye. TIM: Well, it was a Choctaw chief who first described the removal of his people as “a trail of tears and death” to a newspaper reporter. But it was the Cherokee removal that popularized the term. The law-abiding Cherokee tried to fight the government by going to court, with two cases going all the way to the Supreme Court. An image shows a group of American Indians addressing the court. TIM: The court eventually ruled in their favor, but by that time, it didn’t matter. In 1835, a small group of Cherokee went against the wishes of the rest of the tribe and negotiated the Treaty of New Echota. An image shows a white man and an Indian man sitting at a table across from each other with a pile of papers lying on the table between them. An animation shows them shaking hands. TIM: It sold all existing Cherokee lands for $5 million and promised that the tribe would move west to Indian Territory. Most Cherokee were furious, but there was nothing they could do. Three years later, President Martin Van Buren ordered the Army to enforce the treaty. An image shows Martin Van Buren’s portrait. TIM: On May 17, 1838, 7,000 troops went to Georgia to round up the Cherokee for the long journey west. An animation shows a platoon of soldiers marching. TIM: Men, women, and children were driven from their homes at gunpoint and crammed into temporary camps in Tennessee and Alabama. An image shows three armed soldiers leading a group of Indians down a road in the rain. TIM: Even before the journey began, many people in the camps died from disease and starvation. An image shows an Indian family sitting on the ground covered by blankets. A mother and father are both holding their children, sheltering them from the wind. TIM: Of the survivors, a few thousand were loaded onto steamboats and barges to make the journey by river. The rest went on foot, marching over 1,100 miles to what’s now Oklahoma. An image shows an American Indian caravan crossing a river. TIM: Exposure, starvation, and diseases like pneumonia and smallpox caused many deaths. Three images are shown. The first shows two Indians riding a horse through the snow. The second image shows a hungry mother and child sitting in front of a sack with crumbs in it. The third shows two Indians walking away from a grave in the snow marked with a tomahawk. TIM: Cherokee leader John Ross convinced the Army to split up his people into smaller groups, so they could follow different routes and forage for food more easily. An image shows a portrait of John Ross. A different image shows him standing at a fork in the road with two groups of people walking in different directions. TIM: Ross’s heroic efforts saved many lives. But by the time the last groups reached their new home in 1839, close to one-third of the 15,000 Cherokee had died in the camps or on the trail. The map is shown again, and an animation removes the regions where the tribes used to reside and the trails leading to the Indian Territory, leaving only the Indian Territory colored in red. The tribal lands become part of the United States. TIM: The Cherokee term for the removal translates to “the trail where they cried.” And that’s how this entire era came to be known as the Trail of Tears. Thankfully, the Cherokee and other tribes were able to survive and preserve their history and cultural identity to this day! An image shows a group of American Indian descendants from different tribes dressed in traditional and modern clothing. TIM: And in 1987, Congress created the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, stretching through parts of nine states, to commemorate the tragic removal. A sign displays the Trail of Tears emblem. MOBY: Beep. Moby cries and wipes the tears off his face. TIM: It’s okay to be sad. Tim puts his hand on Moby’s shoulder. TIM: We need to remember the suffering of these Americans—not just to honor their memory but to make sure that we learn from the mistakes of the past. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Okay. Let’s get going! Tim and Moby continue their journey down the Trail of Tears. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts